1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to apparatuses for equipping substrates with electrical components. In particular, the present invention relates to apparatuses using a moveable equipping head for handling electrical components.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Basic devices of this type have been generally disclosed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,285, a turret-like equipping head has a large number of grippers constructed as suction pipettes, which picks up components at the feed locations. From there, the equipping head moves to a printed circuit board which is fixed in the apparatus and onto which the components are placed successively. In this case, the number of components transported is restricted to the number of suction pipettes. After the placement action, the equipping head must be moved again to the feed devices arranged outside the equipping area.
It is notable that large components, for example multi-pin ICs, cannot be handled by the turret head for reasons of space, and such turret heads usually have only one gripper with which only one large component can be transported in each case. 